Mom's Emotions Can Impact Child's Dental Health

A new study has suggested that a mother's emotional health and education level during her child's earliest years influence oral health at age 14.

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University's School of Dental Medicine started with the oral health of the teens and worked backwards to age 3 to find out what factors in their past influenced their oral health outcomes.

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It is commonly recommended that you visit the dentist twice a year to clean your teeth and gums and also do the basic check–ups.

While mothers were interviewed, lead investigator Suchitra Nelson, professor in the dental school, believes it can apply to whoever is the child's primary caregiver.

Nelson's team examined the teeth of 224 adolescent participants in a longitudinal study that followed very low birth weight and normal birth weight children. Over the years, researchers gathered health and medical information from the children and their mothers to assess the child's wellbeing at age 3, 8 and now 14.

The researchers analyzed the teen's oral health by counting the number of decayed, filled or missing permanent teeth and assessed the level of dental plaque, a symptom for poor oral hygiene.

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Tooth decay in toddlers, children and adults, also called dental caries, is a bacterial infection causing demineralization and destruction of the hard tissues of the teeth.

Mothers completed a questionnaire about preventative treatments from sealants to mouthwashes, sugary juice or soft drink consumption and access to dental care and frequency of dental visits.

The data revealed that even with access to dental insurance, fluoride treatments and sealants as young children, it did not always prevent cavities by the age of 14, said Nelson, professor of community dentistry at Case Western Reserve dental school.

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Using a statistical modelling program that tracked pathways from the teen's dental assessments back to the source of where the oral health originated led researchers right to mothers and their overall emotional health, education level and knowledge when children were at ages 3 and 8.

The researchers found if mothers struggled in any of the three areas, the oral health of the teens at age 14 resulted in higher numbers of oral health problems.

The oral health boost comes from mothers, who muster coping skills to handle everyday stresses and develop social networks to provide for their children's needs.

It was found that mothers with more education beyond high school, with healthy emotional states and knowledge about eating right had children with healthier teeth.

"We cannot ignore these environmental influences and need interventions to help some moms get on track early in their children's lives," Nelson concluded.

The findings have been reported in the Journal of Dental Research.

Source-ANI